Complimentary Side Dishes

Sura Korean Restaurant has been around for quite a while in their Downtown Robson location. I hear good things about that location, with their lunch menus being quite affordable. Sometime last year, they opened a second store in Aberdeen Mall in Richmond. Sadly, it didn’t seem to meet the same expectations looking at online reviews. I decided to give it a try myself, since J wanted some Korean food. First, we were given some complimentary side dishes. The only dish I liked was the Kimchi. The other was a chili chive, which is too strong for my liking, but J loved. The third was some sort of marinated mushroom, which was alright.

Yukhoe

J introduced me to something that frightened me a bit at first, but I later found delicious. It’s called Yukhoe, and is essentially the Korean version of steak tartar. It’s made from high quality raw ground beef and is seasoned with various sauces and spices. The beef was julienned into thin strips, and surprisingly it was very easy to chew. If you’re not someone into eating raw beef, this is definitely not for you. You mix it with the veggies, like cucumber, carrot, radish, and apple, and these ingredients bring some sweetness to your meat. I believe it normally also comes with a raw egg on top, but J doesn’t eat eggs, so it was removed.

Dolsot Bibim-bap

I found that most of the dishes on the menu were good for sharing, but for the two of us, it was a bit difficult to order. On another visit, we ended up just getting a Dolsot Bibimbap, which is the most original bibimbap. It’s rice topped with lightly sauteed vegetables and beef served in a heated stone pot. The server will mix it for you, and you can add some Korean hot sauce for some extra flavour. You get some crunchy rice at the bottom, which J loves.

Galbi-tang

For both visits, we got the Galbi-tang. It’s a nice hearty beef soup and comes with a bunch of marinated beef short ribs. I found that as usual, the short ribs lacked meat, but it was still very tasty. Korean cuisine is known for their soups and they have many added benefits. I would definitely recommend this soup if you’re looking for a healthy alternative.

For both visits, the service was average. The first visit was the worst, since this server was still in training and she kept messing up our order, which gave us a lot of confusion and extra wait time. All in all, I found the food to be average, but extremely pricey! The environment is quite nice, but I probably wouldn’t pay that much for a typical dinner. Haroo would be a much better choice for an affordable Korean meal.